King Dawidalle’s latest single is titled “Black Man,” but the Mill Creek musician’s aim is to speak to everybody.
Spirituality is a major theme in the 26-year-old Dawidalle’s music, which draws from a wide range of genres, including hip-hop, rap, soul, reggae and world music. He’s described himself as a “genre-bender” who goes way beyond a foundation of hip-hop to create his own sounds.
“Black Man is a song I wrote back in October,” said Dawidalle, whose artist name is KingDow. “At face value, people might think it’s about black consciousness. But I’m taking it a step further. I’m talking about human consciousness. The theme is to help people reach their higher level of spirituality.
“We’re living in a time where people are all divided,” he said. “‘Black Man’” isn’t just about black people. If you look further, we all came from black people, anyway.”
Visually, Dawidalle’s work is inspired by anime. “My aesthetic is all about fantasy and anime,” he said.
On his website, Dawidalle says that through anime, a style of animation originating in Japan, he turns himself into a character of his own creation, with the songs representing the journey in his own mind.
“It’ll come out in this video,” he said of his love for anime culture.
The video for “Black Man” premieres today on KEXP-FM’s weekly Throwaway Style feature. You also can see it starting Friday on KingDow’s YouTube channel. The song will drop a week later on all platforms.
Zach Purnell, like Dawidalle a graduate of Jackson High School, shot the “Black Man” video, which was engineered by Dawidalle’s childhood friend KrazyMak and mixed by Lake Stovall at Fibonacci Production Studio in Seattle.
A behind-the-scenes video of the creation of “Black Man” will be released on YouTube on March 1.
“Black Man” is the 30th single Dawidalle has recorded as part of six music projects: “My Time,” “Codes,” Vootakin,” “Energy” and “TopDow Part 1.” The latter two are five-track EPs released just this year.
Starting in music when he was 10, Dawidalle grew up playing bass and drums with his father’s bands, formed two of his own, and also performed in the jazz bands at Jackson High School, where he graduated in 2013. While playing upright bass in the pop band Strawberry Mountain and the rock trio Joey Hauck Band, Dawidalle launched his solo career as KingDow in 2018.
If Dawidalle’s sound must be labeled, he suggests “hip hop alternative.”
His day job is in merchandising for Coca-Cola, but he said his goal is “financial freedom — to make a living from my art.” A dancer as well as a musician, he also aims to own his own dance studio.
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